Ahh, Look at that sweet guy!

Dear Mom,

The work here is going great! We did get a call today from President... To congradulate us on our TWO BAPTISMAL DATES!!! :D We are going to baptise bothe Karina (yes it´s with a K... I got in trouble about that one) and Alessandra on the 21st of November! I´m getting my feet wet in my first area! I´ll be baptising Alessandra. And as far as Alessandra´s family goes... Her brother came to church yesterday and her mom will be able to start coming next week! They are all on their way to getting baptised... VERY SOON! We´re thinking that it´s possible to have them baptised on the Saturday before I leave! They are una familia de oro!!! Karina´s mom will be a little longer though. But she´ll come around some day!

We taught some bulgarians this last saturday... Boy was that a fun lesson! So the last time we were with them we found out that they speak russian. It just so happens that one of our recent converts speaks a fair amount of russian and understands spanish fairly well (She´s from Georgia... the coutry). Anyway, we decided that since The Restoration DVD plays in russian we would watch that... But they didn´t have a remote so it could only play in English. So we translated from english to spanish for Maía(the Georgian) and she translated from spanish to russian for the Bulgarians... that could understand russian... And then they translated to Bulgarian for their wives that could only understand bulgarian. haha FOUR LANGUAGES IN ONE LESSON!!! BOOM BABY!!!!!!!!!! Sounds hectic, and at times it was, but it turned out good and they are hopefully going to come to the baptism in two weeks!

We have not had our primary program yet. I am still dreading that one! :P That´s going to be a fun week!... sort of! But we did just have a family move into our ward and the husband plays the piano... the only thing is that he has a stake calling which takes him to other wards just about every other week! :( Oh well! At least when I leave they will only have to sing acapella every other week!!! haha

No Kayla did not tell me she´s getting married! Dec 19th! Are they doing announcements? If they are send me one! They are going to get married 364 days after I got my mission call!!! hehe Well, de todas modas... Felicidades!

Camera... Go Buy It!!! if there´s a store warranty that covers it for a few years... even dropping it... get that too... if it´s not too expensive. Once again, I trust your Judgement! Get it sent with this package if you can!... and I want the owners manual... Just tear out the pages that are in english and only send that.

Any specialties for Christmas for back home? I better get something sent soon! or at least put together soon.

That is a good letter that Aunt Monica sent! Unfortunately with some ...not the best... news. Well, I will pray for them that everything wil go well this weekend. And that they can bring Sasha home!

It is sweet to see the change in people as they grasp onto the truth! Alessandra is one that loves to learn! Our contact with her was practicing english with her and teaching her a little bit in english. then she just wanted to know everything about the gospel. She has the faith and just needs the beliefs to be formed. She´s like a bit of clay on a wheel. Soft, moldable and will be thrown in the kiln on the 21st and 22nd! The Lord is sitting on the stool and we are the hands of the Lord. She, and her family, will be stong members! They have been so prepared! Back to grasping the gospel... Her mom has already commented to her and us, in the short two weeks that we´ve taught her, that she has noticed a great change in her. And the members see her love for the gospel as well! She is Awesome!!!

Well, I think that´s about all I have to say for this week!

I love you all very much and pray for you continually!

Con Amor,

Uncle Elder Austin Heywood

ps. I did get my package! ;) haha That was a happy friday! I also got a letter from Amy! :D Thanks for the Pecans!!! I didn´t even scarf them... they took me 3 whole hours to finish! jk I think I´ve eaten about 7 of them. I´m doing good! And Elder Jensen liked the Reese´s! Thanks!!! And a special thanks for the Josh Groban´s You Raise Me Up!!! I absolutely Love that song!!! Smooth move on the "Religious Books" haha! I was curious about that when I saw it! Anyway, I love you all! Talk to you... well, on Christmas... but I´ll write you again at least once before then! hehe

Mucho Amor!!!

6 Months!!!

I hit my six month mark on thursday! That´s so weird that I´ve been out for 1/4 of my mission already!!! when they say time flies in the mission... IT FLIES!!! It actually seems like it´s been longer than the two years since I´ve seen Gary though. Crazy stuff! Does that mean i´m the oldest missionary... only missionary... in our ward now, or is there still somebody else out with me?

I think I´m staying for this next transfer. But we´ll see on saturday... Transfer calls are fun to get, even if you don´t leave.

So I pretty much had the saddest moment on Saturday. We were at a benefit concert thing put on by the youth of the church... Cuz we had investigators coming... and I had my camera in my pocket. I was sitting on the chair and it decided to go kerplop! GRRRRRRRRR It now looks like a windshield of a car behind a truck hauling gravel. :´( I can take pictures but now it´s litterally a "point and shoot" camera. I can´t see any of the picture. Want to buy me a Christmas present... with my money!?! It would be cheaper to buy it in the states and then ship it here! But it has to be a camera that takes an xD memory card and AA-Bateries. (preferably) Which means that it pretty much has to be an Olympus but there are a couple others now that take xD.

I don´t know why it had to break this time. It fell flat on the it´s back and shattered. I´ve dropped it before but it always hit a corner and was fine. Not any more! :((((((

Yes a Guard Duck!!! But it was behind the fence so it couldn´t chase us luckily! A junk yard used birds as their security? That´s pretty funny!

Now the best thing that happened to me...We got our phone back!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!! Finally! I also found out that half of the songs for the primary program that I thought were in normal hymn book are actually from the primary book! That made this sooooooooo much easier!!!

There´s not much to report on this week. It was kind of a lame week. But yes that was president and my companion at church. And yes we call them exchanges... well, we translate it to intercambios! ;)

Pres. Mellor, Elder Heywood, Elder Jensen

WASHED THE HOUSE??? Sounds... Interesting!!! I washed... the dishes this week! And my hands... a couple times anyway! haha I´m afraid I didn´t do any netti though. I hope everything goes well for you with staying away from the swine flu! It´s kind of hard to do that with what we do... talking to all the people in the street every day. But we try!

Well, I´m looking forward to the package coming next week!!! :) And to thursday this week! SIX MONTHS!!!

Con Amor

Elder Heywood

Residency Trip

The best part of the Residency trip to the mission home seems to be the food! I'm sure they appreciate Sister Mellor!!!


Austin is beaming - he gets to eat without having to first cook it!!! :) (4th one back on the right side)


Now that lunch is over, let's do some serious talking. . . (standing on our far right - wearing green tie)

Goody Goody Gum Drops!

Mom,

Well the bag worked out pretty well. It doesn´t stink...YET! So Brady is official now? haha Why did they do it on that week? Speaking of primary programs, I have to... GET TO... play for our ward´s primary program... oh and not to mention every other sacrament meeting and any other time they need a pianist!!! :P :P :P We have "my family" here that has the only piano player in the ward in their family. They´re moving in 3 weeks! :´( I played in priesthood two weeks ago and so they knew that I know how to play. Unfortunately I´m still at the measly 3 songs...good songs...but 3! During church yesterday they must have announced that they are moving, because immediately after sacrament meeting I had 4 people come up to me asking if I knew how to play the piano. Guess what I do during medio día now!?! :P Goody Goody Gum-Drops!!!!!!!!!!

Learning the Language... Talking with people helps more than anything. I knew a while ago that when Elder Going left I would improve a lot! He taught me a lot of grammer and good things about spanish but I wouldn´t have to concentrate as hard to understand people because he would always take over and answer questions and I would get off with the newbie excuse. But now I´m the one that knows the members and the investigators and I do know a bit more so... practice is what does it for me. I had about a 20 minute conversation with the mom of "my family"... Kike´s mom. They are an awesome family! No I don´t do flashcards. I used to use that little black notebook as a record of words and use it as flashcards but I don´t use that anymore. We try to talk spanish in the streets. When I don´t know a word I write it down in my agenda and look it up at the end of the day... if I remember. I really do need to do more on vocabulary though. ps. It´s not quite 45 minutes and we try to make contacts on the way to our area. It´s more like 20 minutes... unless we´re in a hurry! Then it is about 12-15.

I like your funniest story! That´s a classic! I love it!

I want to tell you the funniest thing that gave me lots of laughs this week. Peaches were on sale at Food City and I wanted to bottle some, so I called to see what variety the peaches were. She said, "We don't have varieties. You have to go to Basha's for that." hahahaha As it turned out, they were a great canning variety, and I bought some.

My funniest thing... I can´t think of anything! But the coolest!!! I made my first goal in soccer by heading in an inbounds pass!!! That was sweet! I´ve tried it so many times and I finally got it!!! :D

You did tell me that Ryan and Linndsy are getting married! Did you get a wedding announcement? I want to see it! They´ll be a fun couple!

I remember that day when we went to find Bro. Hardison. I forgot that he was so dehydrated and out of it. That´s good to hear... things that I´ve done for other people. It keeps me going. Something else that keeps me going is that we had 5 new investigators this week. I don´t know where any of them will go, but there´s a girl in our wad that has been bringing her friend with her to church for a long time and we finally were able to teach her this last friday. We flew through two of the lessons and she is so knowledgeable about the things we are supposed to teach. We didn´t have to to set a date with her for baptism but we are teaching her this friday again and we´re going to baptise her before this transfer is over. I don´t know why she hasn´t gotten baptised before this.

We also met Elizabeth at the door yesterday... The Peruvian. She wants to come to church and we are going to work that out for sure! She´s gonna get baptised!!!... I hope... and pray!

For conference we go to the church building in sevilla and watch the broadcasts and do contacts between sessions. I´m still not quite sure exactly how everything goes down but I´ll let you know next week.

Thanks for the prayers! As far as the family that we used to have the fechas(dates) with, I think they are starting to avoid us. If the husband will allow it I still want to get the wife baptised soon. We´ll see how that goes.

I have something to ask... How much are eletric heat pads? I still haven´t made a sock pad thing but if that´s the route I really need to go I´ll do that. I wouldn´t mind a eletric one like what we´ve got though... I will check and see if they sell anything like that here this week. That one is just a dream I think. I don´t want to get too expensive. But another thing that I kind of want... Altoids! I leave them in my suit so that I only use them on sundays so they are still doing me service, but I am getting close to the end. :D I love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <3

Man you better hurry and get that package sent before I ask for too many things! haha But still keep it for the conference talks... oh yeah... the end of the spanish BoM would be nice too! I think I only have through 4 Nefi. Thanks for everything.

Most spiritual thing that happened this week... We weere doing door contacts and we were talking to this old lady about the family and the happiness that we can find through our families and how we can have more through the gospel in the family. She started out by telling us that she has all the happiness that she needs and that more isn´t possible. Then I started to talk about the plan of salvation and the life after this and she broke doiwn crying. She has a son that is into drugs and is in the hospital. We set up a cita with her for two days later and when we went to visit her she was in madrid... surprise trip to madrid visiting that son. I don´t know what all happened in that little time at the door but something miraculous happened.

We had an interesting week. Lost some investigators... some dropped and some moved but all gone. And then we picked up some new ones as well. Overall it was a fairly good week.

I Love you all,

Elder Heywood

Picture

Sevilla Stake Conference - Elder Heywood is wearing the red tie.

New Companion

Dear Mom,

Well, about Elder Jensen... He is probably the most strict to the rules missionary that there is in the mission...

My bag is soaking at the moment. I´m going to take it out when I get home today and take care of it. My back... I haven´t made a heat pack for that. I think that most of the tightness might be coming from sleeping. I can´t wake up without a really tight back/neck. I can´t wait till I have my own house and bed and can afford an air-bed. If you really want to show me in a sort of material way that you love me, then when I get home you´ll let me sleep on your air-bed!!! :) jeje And my belly? Did I mention anything about that? The only thing I can think is that I am still fat. :( I did a couple workouts this week along with my stretching. Other than that... idk. I am eating well/ healthily. (Haha. I asked him How's your bag? Your back? and then just because I needed a third one, I added Your belly?)

As far as that other Elder goes... He is a district leader and a trainer at the moment, didn´t get transfered, but will this next transfer because I think they are going to close the area. I should pray for him. Thanks. I only have prayed for knowledge on how to deal with it while I´m around him. We´ll see how it goes next time we´re around each other. I have told President Mellor, so he knows now. Last week I just left him un-named but this week I told him who it was. I don´t mind you asing your mm friends for advice. They´ve had kids go through the same things so they know better from experience than we do.

I´ll check this week on the price of boullion and decide. as far as the little vanilla things that Kayla got... I think that would be awesome! Not that I think you wouldn't do this but just to make sure... Wrap ´em up nicely so the iPod doesn´t die if they do. :) That would be bad.

Worst thing... I still haven´t gotten a letter from a really cool person that has held my awesome sword. Elder Going said that it wasn´t even in the office. I think she may have sent it to the MTC or the CCM. :( That was a bummer.

The Best things... I have gotten more flexible with my legs. I´m thinking it might be possible for me to do the splits by the time I get home. :) And if you saw me try to stretch before the mission that is a 10000% improvement!!! jaja Sorry nothing really extraordinary happened this week with missionary work. In fact we might be losing one of our baptismal dates. We called to set up a cita and he basically told us that he doesn´t want to be baptized. (the last lesson we taught was the word of wisdom) Fun stuff! The wife is still comming along a bit better though!

I´m happy for you that you are getting a good Christmas present from random people you´ve never met!!! jaja You and your mm´s! :P

I have a couple things to ask for... If you could find some spanish bible tabs for the different books that would be awesome. I think I could order them off the mission website but that would take a while and since you are already planning on sending me a package... Also I´m getting kind of low on my Burt´s Bees chapstick. If you could send me one of those with it too... Thanks!!!

So I was thinking this week... Now that you´ve gotten out on the water on the kayaks a couple of times, you oughta take the Sailboat out to the lake!!! :) Ok that is a bit of a joke but I do hope that it´s not just sitting tere for all two years. In fact I really wouldn´t mind if it got put under the back porch or something... out of the sun. :D

Well I hope everything is going well! I love you all! Have a wonderful day!!!

Con Amor,
Elder Heywood

Elder Going is Going

Dear Mom,

Well, Elder Going is geting transfered... He´s going to the office to be the financero, which is funny because we were talking about that maybe happening since we still haven´t gotten our travel money for this month... that means thathe will try to get tothe office but he doesn´t have money yet to go give others money. haha I have actually learned to love the people here with him but didn´t really think about that until I read your letter. It was also what I was looking forward to in getting out of the MTC. It was just hard to teach lessons and not people. Here in the field you get to know people and teach to their needs and work for them rather than for yourself (learning lessons). My new companion is Elder Jensen. I am not sure where he is from but he is only two transfers ahead of me. That will be fun. I actually hope his spanish isn´t a ton better than mine so that I can learn faster, rather than relying on my companion to take care of things. I´ll let you know a little more about him next week.

Thanks for the solutions to the bag and the back. I will see what I can do this week. I´m glad you had a blast on your birthday! Sounds like you had fun!... Even though it was water! :)

I would absolutely love it if Pres Turk came to be my President!!! That sure would make me feel loved! But, as for now, I have felt the Father´s love through... well right now I can only think of how my parents raised me. I´m just struggling a bit with anger towards a really crude missionary in my zone. I felt a couple times today like shutting him up myself since he wouldn´t allow a change in topic in any way, shape or form. I know Dad has remined me to hate the sin and not the person, but that´s all I know of him. I dread the possibility of someday being put with him because he would either change or get hurt. Sorry to say it but I don´t kow what to do. Should I play Pollyanna and say... I´m glad I only have to see him, at most, 2 times a week!... which is too much. Anyway, Thanks again for teaching well and raising me to pick good friends.

Can I ask you to do another thing for me and just tell me... what is the price on boullion (beef and chicken). I finally found where it is here but if it is a huge difference from here I may as well have you send some with the iPod... and Chicken Noodle Soup recipe. :) And I´m havinga tough time finding vanilla too. Could you just tell me the price of that and maybe I´ll ask for a small bottle of that too if i need to. Probably not on this one though.

Sorry this wasn´t a very fruitful or great email but I´m not in the best of moods right now. I hope you got your letter or will get it soon. And sorry for all the missed spaces. The space bar doesn´t want to work on this computer. Well, I love you Mom...and Dad when you read this. Help me out! Just pray!

<3 Always
Austin Heywood